Escape from Your Tower Rapunsel

3 AM In Wistledown Castle…

A young girl lay still in an empty cauldron her skin significantly different. It seemed to have lost its usual luster and became slightly pale.

Her eyes sunk into her head and black tattoo like markings developed on the sides of her neck and shoulders. The tattoos swirled in random directions but stopped abruptly as if not even close to being complete.

A deep moan was heard exiting her mouth. Her eyes suddenly opened and rolled back into place.

Belle massaged her forehead and looked down at her body which was slightly paler than before and sighed.

She felt no different maybe this whole thing was just a sick joke played by her father. She exited the hidden room shutting the door.

She turned on her desk lamp on and stared at herself in the mirror. She noticed small lilac swirls that started from the back of her neck and began to move downwards but abruptly stopping at her shoulders. Seeing this she did not scream or shout she remained abnormally calm. She carefully touched them and put on some clothes. She read the notes detailing her abilities once more.

She realized that the first and second of her abilities were useless at the moment because she could feel she did not have the necessary tools to perform such things. She looked around her room to see if there were any other hidden items or artifacts. There was nothing.

She packed up the rest of her things and began her escape from the castle.

Carrying a large suitcase, she slowly crept through the halls. She knew the guard's routes through and through as she snuck around the castle since a child. Her journey seemed even easier than she thought. Even times when she cut it close her reaction time seemed faster or the guards move a bit slower so she was able to avoid detection safely.

She reached the entrance to the botanical gardens.

On the way she looked towards Silos room which was pitch black and then she looked towards Planchett's smaller room and saw the lights on.

She sighed and hoped everything will play out well.

She crawled through a hedge to the outside spiked fence that surrounded the castle walls. She nimbly maneuvered along the fence line to the servant entrance and walked out undetected.

She reminded herself how easy that was but to not get to complacent with her strength. If she wanted to protect the people she loved she had to be stronger. For her Father and for Planchett.

As she left the palace walls. The light in a room suddenly returned and a shadowy figure stood in one of the windows.

4 AM… In an alley way

A young girl was extremely out of breath. She had run as far as she could with her minimal physical training and activity. The castle was still extremely large and imposing but it was much smaller now.

In front of her was the Cathedral of light.

It was decorated with golden figures of the Sun God Hoilos or what people believed him to look like.

She had always found this place strange. It never really felt like a church more of an cultist worship place. Now she had a pretty good idea why.

She then though back to how all high ranking members of the Church and clergy tended to have blonde hair and blue eyes. It was mentioned in the doctrine that all people possessing those characteristics are Gods blessed. She knew this was significant but she couldn't tell why. She was missing a few pieces of the puzzle.

A vague memory of the Pope flashed in her mind.

She thought about how when she was a child the Pope baptized her. It was tradition for royalty of the kingdom.

She remembered how his blonde hair seemed to dance like flames and just his presence made him hard to look at. His eyes were so bright;it was as if looking at the sun itself.

She threw these thoughts aside.

She then called a little tramp boy off the streets while waving a coin at him.

(Tramp boy POV)

I was thinking about my next meal when a strange teenager started to call to me. I thought she was one of those scammers who would pretend to help ya but them immediately sell you off to a slave trader or worse; turn you into their own personal slave. I was about to ignore her when I saw a slight glint in her hands.

Seeing the coin in her hand I immediately walk up to her tipping my hat downwards to hide my face from any hidden traders. I get a closer look and boy was I shocked. It was the fucking Princess of the Kingdom standing in front of me. I looked her up and down and saw what a sorry state she was in. Her clothes were stained with sweat and it seemed almost like shed been wearing this for the last day and a half. Still I'm no man of questions. It's almost morning time and I need to get to the business district early cause that's when the pockets of the loggers are fat and ripe for the picking.

I look at her and say

"Whatd'ya want Princess?"

She looks down at me and hands me a letter and points to the Church across the street.

I understood what she meant I snatched the coin from her hands and bit it to make sure that it wasn't fake. I looked at the silver coin in my hand smiled. . I ran over and dumped it into the donations box before going on my merry way.

(POV END)

Seeing the boy gleefully run over to the donations box and dumping the letter into it. She sighed in relief. She then contemplated on her appearance. The boy immediately recognized she was the princess in this dim lighting. The street lamps haven't even turned on yet.

She then realized it was her outfit. Even though she didn't look her best right now she still carried herself and dressed like royalty. She then thought of something.

She tore off the bottom part of her dress leading to some male passerby's looking at her with leech like eyes before continuing their walk. She then opened her small suit case and put on a black pair of jodhpurs and riding boots. She tied her hair into pigtails to complete the new look.

After glancing at her new figure in the glass window of a store and being satisfied she threw the rest of the dress and heels into a nearby bin. It was almost day time and everything seemed to be going right.

Belle walked into a small tavern and her beautiful figure and face attracted a lot of stares some with evil intent. However, none of them acted in fear of angering the barman.

The headboard inside the bar read.

Welcome to the Neyman's Bar

Rule 1. No fighting

Rule 2. Every 10th drink is free

Rule 3. No harassing customers especially women

Rule 4. Everyone in this bar is family

She sighed in relief before sitting at the counter. She looked at the barman he was a gruff older man in his late fifties witch a full beard.

His brown hair was slicked back into a neat man bun and his hairy arms and chest didn't diminish the manly aura he radiated.

His larger than life forearms bulged with veins and his shoulders seemed to almost want to break free from his silk shirt.

A gruff voice broke her out of her reverence.

"You lost young lady? This isn't the place your sort should be hanging around. Especially this early in the morning."

She was almost entranced by his voice. Its bass was clearly heard. She watched his hand skillfully clean a bar glass with a cloth without saying anything.

" Ahh you don't speak much do you little lady? I have just the thing for you"

He took out a small cup decorated with colors and kid's drawings presumably as a way to patronize her. She looked at the drawing on the glass and saw that it was the man behind the counter and a small girl who had a brown hair just like him.

Next to them with the face scraped off was what she assumed to be a woman. Her hair was similar to Belle's and wore a cute dark blue sundress according to the child's drawings.

The cup was then filled with a creamy white liquid and then topped off with a caramel like substance which mixed into the cup to form a light brown liquid.

Seeing the color, she looked at the man suspiciously before a haughty chuckle echoed through the bar gaining the attention of the seated customers.

He slowly picked up the glass he filled in front of her and took a big sip before wiping his mouth. The customers seeing his antics laughed a bit before continuing their own conversations.

He slowly placed the cup back in front of the girl and walked over to other customers to serve them.

Belle was shocked at this man's lack of manners. She had never been served something that had already been taken a sip of. She slowly reached forward and drank the substance. She had no other words for it…She downed it all immediately.

It tasted like a sweet version of milk it was delicious and tasted amazing. She looked over to the barman and childlike eyes beamed in his direction holding the cup up towards him.

He walked back in front of her and sighed. He leaned in close before whispering.

"Princess. Just changing your outfit won't make you less royal like. Your still covered in jewels. Most people can't afford a single earring but here you are with one of your ear lobes completely bedazzled and a that necklace screams wealth. "

Belle fiddled with her ears which were turning red from embarrassment. He continued to whisper to her.

" I don't know why u decided to run away from home but I can tell a distressed soul when I see one. Don't worry everyone in this bar is drunk out their minds so you won't be remembered by them and reported to the guards."

Belle was immediately about to get up when he gently placed his large hands on her small delicate fingers.

"Stay here…The moment you walk out that door you won't be safe anymore. Everyone will recognize you and you'll be sent back to the castle which I assume is the last thing you want. "

Belle continued to pull her palms out of his grasp. But no matter what she did it was as if she was locked in iron. He pulled her back into the seat and spoke in a serious tone.

" I have a delivery caravan which will leave to get supplies from the coast tomorrow night. If you stay here for the day. I can secure you a spot on the caravan and you can get off whenever you want. But as the princess you will not be safe until you leave this country completely. "

She looked deeply into the man's eyes and asked.

"Why help me?" She waited for him to respond but none came. He let out a simple smile from his older face. It seemed almost sad and she could almost see a slight tear welling in his eyes. She was about to open her mouth when a loud sound came from the entrance.

Immediately she found herself on the floor on the other side of the bar. In a daze she tried to reorient herself before a slight kick knocked her back to her bum.

She looked around on the lower parts of the bar and was shocked to see what was there. A hunting rifle, an expensive one at that. There were also a few daggers and other melee weapons. The most dazzling one was an axe with ancient text written on it.

But the weird thing is after a few seconds the language on the axe became legible and she could read it. It read.

Axe of storms and windy nights

Forged with the essence of a

Lightning thief

The words formed a sentence which she could understand but put together they made no sense. What was a lightning thief? She came to conclusion that it was her ability to process the language of spirits activating subconsciously.

The letters on the axe significantly dimmed after a minute and returned to their unintelligible state and Belle felt like she had a massive headache.

While Belle was doing this above the counter a commotion was happening.

A man in middle class attire came in and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"The princesses have been kidnapped and the KING IS DEAD!!!!!"

The whole bar went silent before an uproar ensued.

Belle under the bar broke out into a cold sweat.

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Loggers - A term tramps use to describe the affluent in Rima